Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Barrows, Weyse, and Wolfskill families papers
- Dates:
- 1836-2017
- Abstract:
- Materials related to the Barrows, Weyse, and Wolfskill families, including photographs, a diary, mortgage deeds, and facsimiles of family letters and photographs.
- Extent:
- 1.9 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
- Language:
- Materials are in English and German.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item]. Barrows, Weyse, and Wolfskill families papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Materials related to the Barrows, Weyse, and Wolfskill families papers, including a diary written in German describing Julius Weyse's voyage from Germany to San Francisco, mortgage documents, and a small Bible with an inscription about the marriage between Henry Barrows and Juana Wolfskill. Four cased photographs depict Juana Wolfskill Barrows, Henry Barrows, and William Wolfskill. Also included is a modern facsimile of the Meiner ABC German alphabet graphic designed by Julius Weyse in 1856; facsimiles of letters and photographs held with family members; copies of correspondence from the Homestead Museum in City of Industry, California; and copies of articles about family members.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Henry Dwight Barrows (1825-1914) was an American teacher, farmer, and merchant, and a founder and president of the Historical Society of Southern California. Barrows was married three times, first to Juana Wolfskill, daughter of William Wolfskill and Magdalena Lugo Wolfskill. The couple had one daughter, Alice Wolfskill Barrows (1861-1903). Juana Wolfskill Barrows died in 1863, and Henry Barrows married Mary Alice Workman, with whom he had two daughters, Ada Frances Barrows (1865-1939) and Mary Washington Barrows. Henry Barrows and his third wife, Bessie A. Green, had one son. William Wolfskill (1798–1866) was an American agronomist and early settler in Los Angeles, California. Born in Kentucky, he moved to New Mexico in 1821 while the region was a province of Mexico known as Santa Fe de Nuevo México. There he earned money as a fur trapper and became a Mexican citizen in 1828, which enabled him to purchase land in California, and also receive a land grant as a naturalized Mexican citizen. With Mexican and American traders, he was an early traveler on the Northern Route of the Old Spanish Trail linking Santa Fe and Los Angeles. In Los Angeles he cultivated orange groves, developing the Valencia orange, and later grapevines for wine, becoming the largest producer of table grapes in California during the Mexican era. Wolfskill died in 1866. Julius Guenther Weyse was born in Schleiz, Germany around 1803. After participating in an unsuccessful attempt to reestablish the German empire, he left for the United States in 1836, returning to Germany briefly before emigrating permanently in 1848. Weyse spent time in San Francisco and in California gold mines before relocating to Los Angeles in 1857. He owned a vineyard on what is now Eighth Street near San Pedro Street in downtown Los Angeles, where he lived until his death in 1863. Weyse married Caroline Lange and the couple had three sons, Henry Guenther Weyse (1863-1941), Rudolph Guenther Weyse (1860-1933), and Otto Guenther Weyse (1858-1893). The Barrows and Weyse families were intermarried. Henry Guenther Weyse married Alice Wolfskill Barrows in 1868, and Rudolph Guenther Weyse married Ada Frances Barrows in 1890.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Joan Hedding, August 2025.
- Processing information:
-
Processed at the time of accessioning by Kelly Kress in October 2025.
- Arrangement:
-
Arranged by format.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-11-21 11:54:56 -0800 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
- Terms of access:
-
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item]. Barrows, Weyse, and Wolfskill families papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
- Location of this collection:
-
1151 Oxford RoadSan Marino, CA 91108, US
- Contact:
- (626) 405-2191